Later that year it came out as a separate book (Detgiz Publishers, illustrations by A Yermolayev), with considerable changes made by the author and under the new title "Chuk i Gek".

[3] In Soviet Moscow, brothers Chuk and Gek Seriogins live with their mother while their father is away in Siberian taiga for geological research.

As the New Year closes in, Mr. Seriogin, longing to see his wife and children, sends a telegram asking them to come over.

The guard returns from hunting and announces that the geological research team is gone for a ten-day trip to Alkarash Gorge and he himself will be absent for two days.

Chuk, Gek and their mother must now survive the next ten days in this wilderness all by themselves, with only the meagre supply that they have brought with them.